


Driven by Instinct

by Silex



Category: Prototype (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Infected Characters, Multiple Penetration, Rape/Non-con Elements, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 00:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18325313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silex/pseuds/Silex
Summary: There is enough of Elizabeth left that's still human that she doesn't want to hurt Dana after bringing her to the hive, but the drive of the virus to infect and spread is overwhelming. The most she can do is try to make it pleasant.





	Driven by Instinct

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HostisHumaniGeneris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/gifts).



There wasn’t much left of the young woman who had once been Elizabeth Greene. Her body lived on, a husk inhabited by the virus, existing to perpetuate its evolution, the woman she had once been irrelevant to its purposes. Yet something remained, half-formed thoughts, fleeting moments of compassion.

It was Elizabeth Greene who wanted to bring Alex Mercer into the fold of the virus, Elizabeth possessed some notion of family beyond the virus’ primitive distinction of what was and was not it. Alex’s was a different strain, one that could be incorporated into hers, but there was a spark of recognition. Elizabeth saw Alex as being like her, if not like the virus she carried.

Alex was a distant cousin, a long lost relative, the prodigal son, something, anything, more than a thing to be consumed and processed for further growth.

He was like her, but not and for that reason she longed for him, for company beyond the chorus of voices in her head. They were all her after all and endless living with only the company of oneself was madness. There was enough of her left to understand that.

This understanding let her guide the virus to act in a way it had no reason to. It had no concept of family, to it Dana Mercer was just a thing to infect or consume.

Elizabeth saw differently. Dana Mercer was something special, something dear to poor wayward Alex. Alex would ignore her call, kill her children, but Dana was different. Alex would come for Dana.

For that reason she had sent one of her favorite hunters to seek Dana out, because there was enough left of her to have favorites. They were the largest and strongest, because the virus was very much a part of what she was, but they were also possessed of some semblance of intelligence. They didn’t just act and react, they could be instructed, guided. If given a simple enough task they could carry it out.

So Dana Mercer was brought to her, unharmed.

Right now the poor girl was sitting on the floor of the hive, frozen in place with fear.

There was no light so deep in the hive, but Elizabeth didn’t need it, she could sense everything around her through the hivemind the virus granted. Dana was kneeling there, her heart pounding in her chest, pulse racing so fast that Elizabeth felt her own blood quicken in response. She reeked of fear and sweat and desperation. Every time something moved near her or something shifted deep within the living confines of the hive, she would gasp and shy away.

Once, when a walker passed too close on its way to a place that needed to be built up with more living tissue Dana screamed.

Elizabeth had needed to exert her will to keep the walker on course.

Because Dana Mercer was not to be harmed.

Alex would never come back if something happened to his sister.

She could feel flashes of loss and desperation thought the hivemind as Alex searched. They were feelings she could relate to, though there wasn’t enough to recall why. Like a part of her missing, taken away.

Something that belonged to her was gone, taken by a man who she hated with all of the irrational fury of the virus and a sorrow that she had no name for. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something she could feel through the hivemind, so it couldn’t have been that important, or so she told herself when the thought occurred to her.

But there was enough left for her to have doubts, the virus hadn’t taken everything from her.

In the distance she could feel Alex by the hurt he inflicted, the damage caused.

Closer she could feel Dana.

Dana couldn’t see anything around her so she remained frozen in place.

That was something Elizabeth understood, when you were too afraid to move for fear of some new hurt. Even if she couldn’t feel Dana the way she felt Alex, her children, she knew that fear because she had felt it herself, trapped in the lab apart from the family she had been longing to create.

When she stood up to move closer to where Dana was sitting the girl let out a fearful sound, one she tried to stifle as though that would help hide her. Elizabeth had done that before as well, kept quiet in the hope that she would be left alone. Poor thing didn’t know that it never worked that way and even if it had there was no need for it. She was safe here.

But as explicitly clear as Elizabeth tried to make it, keeping walkers and even her favorite hunters away from Dana, sending out comforting thoughts, she was blind to all of it. Lost in her own fear.

If only there was some way to help her escape.

When Elizabeth got too close Dana finally moved, scrabbling backwards on her hands and feet until she stumbled over some irregularity on the floor.

Dana cried out, turned frantically from side to side as though expecting attack even though there was nothing near her. Elizabeth was keeping them all away, even though she preferred their proximity. It was comforting to have them near. Without the children all around her, close enough to touch, to be reassured that they were there, it was far too lonely for her liking. Even with all the noise in her head, drowning out her own thoughts, she longed for companionship.

Which was the reason Alex was such a troubling problem to be solved. Other than Dana he seemed to prefer horrifying solitude, rejecting all advances she and the virus made to save him from isolation.

He would understand though, how empty his life was with only Dana.

Because Dana was less like either of them. Elizabeth knew that she and Alex were closer than Alex and Dana, not just physically, but in terms of existence. She could feel Alex, brief as those feelings were, Dana was simply a void, a blank space in her periphery, like the gap where a missing tooth had once been.

And like with a missing tooth, Elizabeth worried at the emptiness that was Dana Mercer.

Dana’s fear made her uncomfortable because she recognized the emotion.

How did she comfort her though?

Elizabeth sat down to think, listening to the small, frightened noises Dana was making.

Lost in thought Elizabeth rocked in place, listening to the steady din of the hivemind. There was always something happening, something new being brought to them. The new ones were fascinating, their thoughts fresh and sharp, but the hardest to feel. The walkers were a dull murmur, always there, but just noise. Hunters and hydras were easy to sense and had instincts of their own, but there was little else to them unless she chose to directly influence them.

Dana had grown quiet, nervous, but more still.

The change was intriguing.

“Is…” Dana’s voice was small in the vast silence Elizabeth had enforced around her, “Is there someone there?”

Elizabeth answered without thought or hesitation, “Yes.”

“You’re trapped here too?” Dana moved, crawling a hesitant few feet forward, “How long have you been here?”

Was she trapped? Elizabeth knew that she had been, but she was out of that place now. At the same time she desperately wanted to get away from wherever it was that she was. The infection had found the edges of the place, an island surrounded by water and every attempt at crossing had met with death in one form or another.

How long she had been trapped was too hard a question. Not long, at least she didn’t think so. There had been waiting, but how much? Faces and voices had come and gone, she’d been brought from one place to another.

Neither question was one she had an answer for, but Dana Mercer was talking to her.

Talking without any real connection. She could hear and feel Dana, but the deeper understanding was missing.

“Are you alright?”

“No,” another reflexive answer. Elizabeth wasn’t sure if she was or wasn’t alright. There was pain and confusion, but hadn’t there always been?

“Where are you?” Dana started to move again.

“Here,” Elizabeth turned her head in Dana’s direction, sensing her movements through the living matter covering the floor, the pools of liquid swimming with viral particles. It was something that Dana couldn’t do, leaving her with only the sound of her voice to follow, “I’m here.”

Elizabeth felt a thrill of something, excitement maybe. On some level she recognized that she and Dana were the same age, might have had something in common. When had she last been around another woman? Back when she had been home, before everything went wrong. There was more to it though, something resonated in the virus as well.

Through Dana she would make the connection to Alex, bring him back to her.

“I’m right here and you don’t need to be afraid.”

Dana laughed, a bitter, mocking sound, “Yeah, nothing to be afraid of. Trapped in the dark with monsters.”

Elizabeth laughed back, unable to understand what was funny, but unable to help herself.

“Really, don’t panic,” Dana interrupted, her tone different, “We can find a way out of here.”

Elizabeth smiled, we. There was enough of her that was human to like that thought, but the virus was there as well and Dana was, at the moment, not yet infected.

How long had it been since she was near someone who didn’t carry some strain of the virus where she wasn’t restrained or separated from them by bars or glass? Elizabeth was sure that it had happened, but she couldn’t remember when.

The virus brought with it drives and desires.

To spread of course, but how?

The urge to bite and rend and tear existed, but Elizabeth knew that to act on it would be counterproductive.

She didn’t want to hurt Dana, but the drive was there, mingling oddly with what humanity she had left.

What she wanted to do was inherently harmful, but at the same time she wanted to comfort the scared young woman, to be close.

In that her desires lined up with those of the virus.

“We need to stick together,” Dana encouraged.

It was hard for Elizabeth to tell, but she thought Dana was reaching out for her, crawling closer.

Shaking with emotions that she couldn’t understand Elizabeth began to advance, slow and uncertain.

Dana was reaching out, Elizabeth felt fingers brush against her face. She let out a hiss.

“Sorry,” Dana apologized, pulling her hand back, “It’s dark in here.”

Elizabeth nodded, uselessly, then reached out. The touch had startled her, it had been so long, but she was ready now.

She could tell where Dana’s hand was on the floor and reached for it, fingers intertwining.

“Good, we don’t want to get separated,” Dana seemed to be reassuring herself, trying to sound more confident, but her hands were cold, even in the blood warm air of the hive.

Poor girl. Elizabeth wanted to reach out, hold her close and warm her, share the safety that surrounded them.

So she did, throwing her arms around Dana as she tried to stand up. She could smell Dana, clean and whole and free of the virus.

It was maddening.

Her lips pulled back from her clenched teeth as she struggled not to act on what the virus wanted, what she wanted.

To spread, to pull Dana into her family.

To reproduce.

“Seriously,” Dana hugged her back, “We’re going to be fine. My brother’s going to find me and he’ll get us out of here.”

Elizabeth nodded against her, conflicting desires beginning to merge, urges changing, becoming something more distinctly human, “When he gets here everything will be fine.”

“Exactly,” Dana patted her on the shoulder, then hesitated, “What –”

Dana never got to finish the question as Elizabeth covered her mouth with her own.

She could remember kissing someone, being kissed, but the details were hazy, unimportant.

Her tongue forced its way into Dana’s mouth, stifling her cry of shock.

The taste! The sensation! It was a struggle for her not to bite when she felt Dana’s tongue press against hers, trying to push her away.

The feeling of contact was too much.

Dana wasn’t infected yet and on the most basal level Elizabeth knew that couldn’t last, restraint was meaningless so close to her, yet she tried.

She felt Dana’s hands against her face, pushing, but not hard enough to make Elizabeth believe that she was trying to get away. Surely if that were the case she would have been trying harder, there wasn’t that much of a difference in size between the two of them.

Dana’s next action settled the matter, no longer fighting against the kiss, she allowed Elizabeth’s tongue to explore her mouth, much to Elizabeth’s delight.

More though, she wanted more.

Her moan of desperation rose to a shrill scream when Dana bit down, hard enough to draw blood.

Elizabeth let go and shoved her away, shocked at the sudden, violent turn.

Shocked, but also thrilled. Biting was something she could understand, matching what the virus drove her to want, so maybe Dana wanted this as well? The pain was already fading as the injury started to heal and she could hear Dana gasping and spitting.

The blood, their kiss, the virus would be spreading soon, changing her so that she would understand.

The change hadn’t begun yet though, and Elizabeth still felt a confusion of need mixed with the drive of the virus.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Dana spat, “Stay the fuck away from me.”

That was what she said, but she had been the one to bite.

It was a game surely, for she tried to run, blind in the dark, making it three stumbling steps before tendrils of living matter rose up from the floor and wrapped around her legs. If she knew enough to have wanted to bite surely she knew that if she ran she would be chased and caught.

Screaming, Dana fell.

Elizabeth laughed, vaguely remembering what it was like from when she had been human as she guided the tendrils up Dana’s legs.

They slid against the fabric of her leggings and through them Elizabeth could feel the warmth of Dana’s body, nothing like the feverish heat that she was used to. Just to be sure she tried to work the tendrils up under those leggings. Fine movements were difficult, especially with the way Dana was thrashing.

For how badly Dana must have wanted this she was making it difficult, but maybe the struggle was part of it. They all struggled at first so why would this be different? Not that struggling made any difference to what would happen.

Elizabeth was able to get a tendril under the waist of Dana’s shorts, get it between her legs to press and rub.

“No! Stop!”

Meaningless sounds, the heat and warmth Elizabeth felt was what mattered. Like the feel of the hive, it was inviting.

Another tendril slid under Dana’s shorts, this one curling and pulling to rip the fabric away.

Dana screamed and clawed at it, nails sliding harmlessly off the slick flesh of the appendage. The violence, the attack, it lined up, meant that she wanted this and Elizabeth was happy to oblige. More tendrils rose up, seeking blindly, pressing and twisting until one was able to get underneath Dana’s leggings.

Familiar territory, Elizabeth focused all of her attention on that one tendril, trying to remember what she liked by feel.

It was all Elizabeth could do to keep from rushing forwards and attacking, the feeling of Dana clawing at the tendrils transmitted to her through the hive making her want to join in the violence. To rend and tear, taste Dana’s blood as Dana had tasted hers and know her so intimately.

Instead Elizabeth willed the hive to form more tendrils, not to hold Dana, but to help her in her efforts. She had these new tendrils wrap around her own legs, mirroring the ones holding Dana. Her own clothing blocked most of the feeling from one side, but she could feel the tendrils themselves, position them carefully.

The one that had found its way beneath Dana’s clothing probed and sought the heat and warmth between her legs. Muscles tightened against it, but the tendril slowly forced its way in, prompting another scream from Dana.

Her struggles grew more violent, more urgent.

Elizabeth dropped to her knees, tendrils around her legs tightening to hold her back.

Dana was not yet part of it all, if she wasn’t careful she might kill the girl. As much as she wanted to, needed to, she couldn’t let herself attack. She knew what she wanted, what the virus needed and she struggled to find the middle ground.

Redirecting her attention she had the tendril between her own legs redouble its efforts, pressing hard enough for her to feel.

Baring her teeth in a snarl she ground against it, more tendrils rising up to wrap around her chest, sliding back and forth against her breasts.

This she remembered well and the tendrils holding Dana responded in kind, moving up her body, pulling her jacket out of the way and lifting her shirt and bra, seeking flesh to flesh contact. They wrapped and writhed and squeezed and Elizabeth marveled at how cool and dry Dana’s skin was to the touch, not yet changed by the virus.

It was fascinating to her and she took her time, using the tendrils to explore the soft weight of Dana’s breasts, smaller than her own and all the more interesting for that.

Elizabeth was used to her own body, the constant awareness of the hivemind. Having something completely apart from her in her grasp, alien but undeniably similar was fascinating. She could feel the tendrils around Dana, the one twisting and probing inside her, looking for that spot, but the only way she could feel Dana was through her response to those tendrils.

The perky little nubs of Dana’s nipples hardening under the tendrils’ ministrations provided no end of interest to Elizabeth, and she had the tendrils run back and forth over them, coiling and squeezing because she remembered liking that and it was clearly the same for Dana.

Between Dana’s legs the heat and wet was intensifying, her own mixing with the slickness of the tendril.

Elizabeth wondered.

Another tendril pulled Dana’s leggings aside and coiled between her legs. Sliding alongside the first it pushed slowly. There wasn’t much room, but the wetness from the first eased its passage.

It entered her and twined around the first, the two rubbing back and forth against each other and Dana.

A third tendril probed, driven by Elizabeth’s curiosity, but there was no room.

It pressed and searched, curling back around her leg to press against her ass

Dana’s shout was cut off by a tendril thrusting into her mouth, seeking warmth and heat and something new to explore. In her excitement she bit at it, losing herself in a way that Elizabeth could not risk.

Tendrils explored Dana within and without and Elizabeth discovered her through touch and sensation, the connection of the hivemind still distant, but growing nearer.

Her only guess at what Dana was feeling was by what she felt herself, as she rocked back and forth on the tendrils between her legs, guided the ones squirming against her breasts.

She pressed harder, had them coil and twist and Dana thrashed in her grip, tendrils lifting her off the floor to feel her in new ways.

And slowly it happened.

The connection that the virus had sought, that she had yearned for.

There were flashes of fear, which Elizabeth was familiar with in the freshly infected, but so close, inside the hive, the center of her direct focus, Dana received as well.

She moaned against the tentacle in her mouth when she first became aware of what Elizabeth was feeling.

Then fear returned.

Dana tensed and thrashed, causing the tendrils holding her to tighten, the ones inside her to shift to maintain their positions.

She screamed against the tendril in her mouth, but she began to rock against the ones between her legs, her actions mirroring Elizabeth’s.

The feelings became clearer, stronger. Elizabeth felt the tendrils inside Dana as though they were in her and from that was better able to maneuver them, to find the right places to press and exactly when to twist and then slide in and out.

Held by both tendrils and the hivemind Dana began to relax, to allow what was happening to happen.

She barely whimpered when a third tendril slid into her pussy, stretching her past anything she’d ever experienced. It hurt, a lot, but Elizabeth was used to pain and there was pleasure beneath it. She wanted to feel what Dana did, to remember and lose herself in those memories.

Dana moaned and bucked and allowed Elizabeth to have her way with her, her connection to the hivemind too much too fast for her to understand. She was a part of it now and it welcomed her. Elizabeth welcomed her.

Muscles grew tense again, Dana twisted in time with the tendrils, her own mind reaching out, encouraging it. The tendrils holding Elizabeth grew more forceful in their ministrations, tightening around her chest so hard that it was difficult to breathe. There was violence in the embrace, something she understood well. It was the language of the virus.

It hurt when they came, together as a single entity, entwined with the hivemind. A loss of control, mental and physical, the tendrils holding Elizabeth sought to crush the life from her and those holding Dana delved deeper, white-hot agony cutting the haze of pleasure and need like a knife. Together they suffered and rejoiced and then it was over.

Slowly Elizabeth reasserted her control, as much control as she ever had, and the tendrils withdrew, melting back into the hive and into them to begin to repair the damage done. She rose to her hands and knees, groaned and coughed up blood as broken ribs began to knit themselves back into wholeness. Dana’s influence at the end had been surprising which sent a thrill of delight. Dana was different than the others, she was sure of it. Instead of simply obeying and suffering Dana would listen, she would make it so that Elizabeth was not alone. She would bring her brother back, make them a proper family, the way they had never been.

Right now though Dana was lying motionless on the floor of the hive, barely breathing. Elizabeth could smell the blood, drawing her in.

Dana was hurt, badly, but she was mending, slowly.

Creeping forward, nervous and excited for reasons that she could not understand, Elizabeth made her way to Dana. The urge to bite and maim was still there, distant, but disturbingly persistent, transmitted to her through the hivemind, but also in herself.

Dana was the same as her now, but different in ways she didn’t understand. She fought against instincts that told her Dana was a threat, potential competition. Dana was also useful, she knew enough to know that.

Cautiously, she reached out and touched Dana, brushing back the hair from her eyes.

Dana moaned and whimpered, struggling feebly as Elizabeth sat down next to her.

_It will be fine_ , Elizabeth spoke softly to her, words of reassurance and feelings of how right things were, _We’re together now._

Except they were only together by proximity, there remained a distance between them mentally, one that the hivemind could not bridge.

Was it because of the damage done? She could fix that.

Despite her unconsciousness Dana cried out in pain when Elizabeth pulled her onto her lap, leaning in to kiss her tenderly on the forehead.

The virus she could reach out to and guide, helping Dana mend and regain her strength even if the girl herself remained elusive, like her brother, drawing ever nearer.

_Alex!_

A flash of recognition, a cry from Dana.

It was something for the girl to hold onto with a desperate strength.

Her brother could hear, his meandering path gaining direction as he listened to her cries.

_Help me!_

Elizabeth was trying, helping torn flesh mend, healing stronger than it had been. Next time there would be no pain when they coupled, just intimate knowing, the other’s body as their own. Then maybe whatever lingered would be gone and Dana would understand.

Perhaps they could welcome poor lost Alex together.

Revulsion shot through her so strongly that she pushed Dana away.

The girl was awake, but even farther from her than she had been before.

All she could feel was violence and hatred, so unlike anything she’d ever known save for fleeting glimpses in the recently infected.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Through the hivemind she could feel Dana glaring at her, crouched in the darkness. There was enough of a connection for that, for her to feel something alien, hostile.

Dana was, she realized, like her, but not exactly like her.

As much as the two of them had shared Dana Mercer was still very much herself, something Elizabeth lacked the capacity to comprehend.

“ _What did you do to me_?”

Dana’s cry of rage hurt her ears and mind as she felt the hivemind recoil from her.

From her!

If not for her being a part of it, she understood on some primal, inhuman level, it might have left her entirely.

Dana was surprisingly strong, but not as strong as her. She would show the girl her place.

Reaching out with her mind, sending a sense of belonging and trying to push feelings of submission onto Dana their interactions took on an animal element.

Dana pushed back.

“Don’t you fucking dare touch me!”

Alex was close now, close enough that they could both feel him, Dana understanding more than she did, drawing strength from it in the same way Elizabeth drew strength from the hivemind and the infected themselves.

Snarling, Elizabeth lunged at her, grabbing her by the shoulders and tackling her to the ground.

Dana screamed and felt pain.

Elizabeth wrapped her hands around the girl’s throat, willing her to give up, to accept that she was helplessly outmatched.

Too young, too new, Dana wasn’t strong enough to win a contest of physical strength, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

Dana clawed at Elizabeth’s face, nails raking her skin, drawing blood and when that failed to make Elizabeth let go of her she kicked her hard in the stomach.

Screaming, more in outrage than pain, Elizabeth let go to slap her across the face, hard enough that she felt the bones of Dana’s jaw break.

At the same moment the hive itself shook, layers sloughing off as the building that had supported them collapsed.

Alex was there, buoying Dana and giving her the strength to resist, allowing her to withstand the pain rushing in through the hivemind.

Elizabeth on the other hand had no such refuge.

Dana sought refuge in the nearness of her brother, while Elizabeth took the full force of the attach on the hive, felt living flesh char as fires sprung up, and bone supports snapping under pressures they had never been meant to take.

The next impact caused the floor to tilt as whatever Alex had brought to attack the hive acted once again. Elizabeth couldn’t feel it, the infected she had in the area were killed too quickly for her to see it.

Hunters roared, focused on the sound and threw what they could, but she got no sense that they were having any success.

Dana though, she knew what was happening through her brother.

“He’ll kill you for this,” she gasped, bones grinding back into place, “You’re dead!”

Mad with pain Dana lunged at her.

Elizabeth sidestepped and rushed to the far end of the room, pulling her attention away from Dana she instead sought out the hydras burrowing slowly beneath the streets. There were more important things to worry about than the girl right now. As always survival was the only thing that mattered.

One was near enough for her to use and she pulled it to the surface, had it attack the thing, the tank, that was attacking the hive. She could feel the things bones break as it threw itself against the tank, slamming it with enough force to knock it onto its side, leaving it helpless.

Soldiers scattered.

Her infected attacked and somewhere in the midst of it all Alex grew closer.

Now that Elizabeth was no longer directly attacking Dana, the girl was left unable to detect her, she wasn’t strong enough, didn’t understand any of what she was doing, rather she fought against it even as she made it clear that she wanted to continue their fight. What Dana could sense was her brother.

Alex was far stronger than his sister, Elizabeth considered, perhaps even stronger than she was.

Dana was still weak, would be easily killed, but then she would have to deal with Alex.

There was enough of her left to feel fear and, weighing her options, Elizabeth did what she needed to.

She fled the collapsing remains of the hive, retreated beneath the surface to gather her strength and determine what to do about this new thing she had created.

Dana was like her, but not, competition in a way that Alex wasn’t.

Dimly she got the sense that this was not entirely unique.

After all the virus did what it could to survive and spread.

\---

“Dana! Hang on!”

Dana let out a sob of relief at the sound of her brother’s voice.

She’d known he was there, that he’d come to rescue her, but actually hearing him made all the difference in the world. It didn’t require her to wonder why, how she knew where he was, what he was doing. She could hear him, right over there, even if it was still the same pitch black it had been from the start.

She could hear him and felt him, even before he had his arms around her, holding her close even though he’d never been one for hugging in the past.

“Oh god Dana, I thought Greene had…” he trailed off, unable to finish the thought, not that it mattered. Dana knew, somehow, exactly what he’d been afraid had happened. Just like she knew that he’d fought his way through countless infected in the hive to get to her, tearing them apart with his bare hands, except it hadn’t been that way.

There had been claws involved.

Because he was infected with the virus, not the same one that Greene had infected her with, but something similar enough. She’d known it from the start, her research on exactly what Blackwatch and Gentech had been doing making the truth apparent far too quickly. She’d just made a point of ignoring it. Because thinking about it was too terrifying.

Just like thinking about what Greene had done to her.

“It’s going to be fine,” Alex reassured, taking off his jacket and draping it over her shoulders, “I’ll get you out of here.”

Dana nodded, holding the jacket tightly. Her own clothing was in tatters, jacket and shorts gone, shirt and leggings torn to scraps, but more importantly the weight of Alex’s jacket was comforting. It was still warm from his wearing it and it smelled like him and the virus he carried.

Both were comforting to her now.

She didn’t protest as he effortlessly picked her up and carried her out of the hive.

When he ran down the side of the collapsing building she held on tightly and pressed her face against the side of his neck, trusting that she’d be fine, no matter how terrified she was, because that was what Alex believed.

Just how he believed that, despite her being infected she would be fine.

No matter what he would protect her, get her away from Manhattan and then…

Then she had the feeling that she wouldn’t need protecting at all.

First though he was going to kill Greene for what she had done to her.

“No,” Dana shook her head against him.

“Right,” he corrected, “First I get you to safety, then I worry about Greene and Blackwatch.”

That wasn’t what she’d meant. Just like how she had felt Green in her mind, experienced what Greene had felt as though it was happening to her, there was something similar happening with her and Alex. It wasn’t as strong though, just flashes of ideas, bits of emotion.

The virus that Greene had infected her with wasn’t the same as what Alex was infected with so the connection was still weak. In time that would change.

That she knew as much terrified her, but not as much as it should have, which worried her for a whole different set of reasons. Alex wasn’t the same after all and it was more than just him not remembering. How much would she change and would she even be able to tell?

Had she already started to change?

She didn’t feel that different, but…

Pushing the thought from her head she focused on more immediate matters. Greene was still alive, still a threat.

“You’re not the only one who cares about revenge,” she laughed bitterly, “I owe her for what she did to me.”

Alex nodded, understanding in ways too deep for comfort.


End file.
